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People often tell me that they wish they had my life—
especially when they hear about my latest trip to Nashville, New York or Los Angeles.
So, I’ve created A Writer’s Life to give you a chance to peek behind the curtain and see what it’s really like to be a professional author. Is it as glamorous as it sounds?
Once a month I’ll post a glimpse into my world; the good, the bad and the ugly.
This is what it looks like when we step out and bet on ourselves.
When people tell me that they wish they had my life, one of the things they long for is the freedom to set their own schedule; to work when, where and how they want. The funny thing about being a writer is that I’m on the job 24/7. I do
One of the skills that a professional writer has to develop is the ability to say no. No to social invitations. No to interesting projects. No to clueless asks. It isn’t an easy thing to do, but when I’m under deadline, saying yes to them means saying no to myself.
This past month really drained me. My analysis for Dracula was due May 28—this is a full Story Grid workup in the vein of a PhD thesis. The drop dead date had been haunting me for months. If I missed it, my book wouldn’t be published in October (which is ideal
Being an author is remarkably similar to being a mother. It’s insanely hard work, yet infinitely rewarding. The reality of it is much different than we thought it would be. And, no matter how many advice books we read, in the end we figure it out as we go along. That
A few months ago I got up the courage to pitch a podcast idea to Tim Grahl. Tim is a book marketing expert—the kind of expert who charges a king’s ransom to run one book launch and who puts authors on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller
A few weeks ago, I was working to deadline; I had a post due for the Fundamental Fridays blog which, for me, is a pretty big deal. It was a fairly typical scenario for a writer; up at 5:00 a.m., at the desk by 5:30 with coffee in hand. I
